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Center for Community Self-Help
Community development institution aiming to drive economic development

Self-Help is a national community development financial institution headquartered in Durham, North Carolina, providing over $7 billion in financing to more than 146,000 families, individuals, and businesses since 1980. It promotes economic development and fair financial practices through lending to individuals, small businesses, and nonprofits. Its credit union network serves around 145,000 members across North Carolina, California, Florida, and other states. Self-Help has expanded through mergers with local credit unions in North Carolina, Florida, and South Carolina, and operates hybrid check casher/credit union stores in Los Angeles. Together, Self-Help Credit Union and Self-Help Federal Credit Union maintain over 50 branches dedicated to strengthening communities nationwide.

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Aims

Martin Eakes and Bonnie Wright founded Self-Help in 1980 to provide management assistance to worker-cooperative businesses in low-income communities. In 1984, Self-Help established its financing affiliates, Self-Help Credit Union and Self-Help Ventures Fund, to help disadvantaged individuals build wealth through home and small business ownership.

Supporting small businesses

Self-Help's early lending focused on small businesses. The organization adapted international microlending models to the U.S. market, and then expanded into larger loans well-suited to bigger firms that were a main source of employment in rural communities. Over the years, Self-Help diversified its lending to businesses and nonprofits. Through 2014, Self-Help had made over $800 million in loans to entrepreneurs.

Supporting homeownership

In 1985, Self-Help began making home loans to North Carolina families unable to secure conventional mortgages. Looking to expand its community development impact, Self-Help worked with Fannie Mae to create more home-buying opportunities for underserved borrowers in the late 1980s. Later, Self-Help partnered with Fannie Mae and the Ford Foundation in 1998 to create the Community Advantage Program which provides credit enhancement to conventional lenders. The Community Advantage Program reportedly awarded over $2 billion in affordable home mortgage loans to minority and low-wealth homebuyers nationwide over a five-year period.4 After analyzing the data from this program, Self-Help determined that low-income borrowers are good credit risks when they are offered responsible loans at fair rates.5

Developing communities

Self-Help's first real estate development project took place in Durham, NC, where it converted a downtown office building into affordable space for local nonprofits and small businesses. Recently, Self-Help has invested $144 million in commercial real estate projects to invigorate downtown areas and neighborhoods and created affordable housing for 228 families.

Fighting predatory lending

In the late 1990s, homeowners began coming to Self-Help Credit Union seeking help to avoid foreclosure after unscrupulous subprime lenders had siphoned off their home equity. In response to predatory loans, Self-Help worked with a state coalition in 1999 to help pass the North Carolina Predatory Lending Law, the first such law in the country.6 In 2002, Self-Help established the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL)7 to build on initial successes and expand our focus nationally, and to tackle practices such as payday lending in addition to mortgage lending. Since 2002, CRL has worked with community advocates, policymakers and industry groups to fight against outrageous lending abuses that strip billions of dollars from American families.8

Awards

Over the years Self-Help has received numerous awards for its work from organizations such as Preservation North Carolina,9 the North Carolina Department of Commerce, and the Triangle Commercial Real Estate Women.10

In 2007, Self-Help was named one of the twelve high-impact nonprofits in the book Forces For Good along with other organizations such as America's Second Harvest, Habitat for Humanity, The Heritage Foundation, and Teach for America.11

In June 2009, Self-Help won the Dora Maxwell Social Responsibility Award, which "recognizes and promotes credit unions’ social responsibility efforts within the communities they serve."12

In 2009, AARP awarded Self-Help co-founder and CEO Martin Eakes an Inspire Award, which "pays tribute to ten extraordinary people age 50 and over who have made the world a better place through their innovative thinking, passion, and perseverance." Other 2009 winners included Glenn Close, Quincy Jones, and Alma Powell.13

In 2011, The Ford Foundation named co-founder and CEO Martin Eakes named one of twelve Social Change Visionaries honored by in recognition of the foundation's 75th birthday. All twelve social innovators were awarded $100,000. Ford's release stated that “Martin Eakes is a national leader in the fight against abusive financial practices that target poor people and trap them in cycles of poverty.14

Notes

References

  1. "2017 Annual Report". http://www.self-help.org/ar/2017/ ↩

  2. "Our Story | NC Credit Union History | Self-Help Credit Union". www.self-help.org. Retrieved 2015-11-09. https://www.self-help.org/who-we-are/about-us/our-story ↩

  3. "2017 Annual Report". http://www.self-help.org/ar/2017/ ↩

  4. Fast Company. "Social Capitalists: Center for Community Self-Help", December 19, 2007. Retrieved July 15, 2009. http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/78/social_cfcsh.html ↩

  5. "The Continuing Importance of Homeownership: Evidence from the Community Advantage Program" (PDF). UNC Center for Community Capital. Summer–Fall 2014. Retrieved November 9, 2015. http://www.frbsf.org/community-development/files/ci_vol26no2-Continuing-Importance-of-Homeownership.pdf ↩

  6. "North Carolina Coalition for Responsible Lending". Center for Responsible Lending. Retrieved November 9, 2015.[permanent dead link] http://www.responsiblelending.org/north-carolina/nc-mortgage/policy-legislation/north-carolina-s-predatory-mortgage-lending-law-main-page.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/?referrer=http://www.responsiblelending.org/north-carolina/nc-mortgage/policy-legislation/north-carolina-s-predatory-mortgage-lending-law-main-page.html ↩

  7. "Center for Responsible Lending". www.responsiblelending.org. Retrieved 2015-11-09. http://www.responsiblelending.org/?referrer=https://www.google.com/?referrer=http://www.responsiblelending.org/ ↩

  8. "About CRL". Center for Responsible Lending. Retrieved November 9, 2015. http://www.responsiblelending.org/about-us/?referrer=http://www.responsiblelending.org/?referrer=https://www.google.com/?referrer=http://www.responsiblelending.org/?referrer=http://www.responsiblelending.org/about-us/ ↩

  9. Preservation North Carolina "2007 Honor Award Winners Archived 2011-07-16 at the Wayback Machine". October 2007. Retrieved July 15, 2009. http://www.presnc.org/Preservation-NC-Awards/2007-Honor-Award-Winners ↩

  10. "Self-Help receives award for Innovative Financing". Retrieved on July 15, 2009 http://www.self-help.org/about-us/news-publications-1 ↩

  11. Crutchfield, Leslie. Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits . San Francisco: Jossey-Boss, 2007. http://www.forcesforgood.net/12_organizations.html ↩

  12. North Carolina Credit Union League. "Self-Help Credit Union Wins Dora Maxwell Award". 2009-6-15. Retrieved on July 15, 2009. http://www.ncleague.org/www/NCNews_Detail.asp?id=2407&lid=6 ↩

  13. AARP. "Inspire Award 2009 Honorees". February 2009. Retrieved on July 15, 2009 http://www.aarpmagazine.org/people/inspire_awards_2009_eakes.html ↩

  14. "[node:Title]". http://www.csrwire.com/press_releases/32153-Twelve-Social-Change-Visionaries-Are-Honored-by-the-Ford-Foundation ↩